Friday, January 22, 2010

Malay language serves to enlarge social circle

Although I seldom write in Malay nowadays, I still read and speak the language frequently enough to maintain a socially acceptable level of proficiency. Reading the many autobiographies of pakcik-pakcik and makcik in southern Thailand has revived my interest in the language. My kedai-kopi philosophy of life is that the more languages we know, the more friends we can make, and we become even more informed. Above all, the more informed we are, the broader our minds become. In this age of speedy proliferation of websites, blogs, facebooks and twitters, bersembang - sembang with real human beings around us is still important to calibrate a balance between knowledge and wisdom. If information and communication technology is used with discretion, it could facilitate the opening -up as well as broadening of the minds.